6 ms·

I almost ordered two pvc plumbing fittings from Amazon last week for $13.99. Thanks to some Hackernews skepticism I cancelled my shopping cart. I found the same

I almost ordered two pvc plumbing fittings from Amazon last week for $13.99. Thanks to some Hackernews skepticism I cancelled my shopping cart. I found the same fittings at my local hardware store for $8.99. My question is, how dynamic are Amazon’s prices? Do all users see the same prices or is it more like google search where results are “personalized”? It seems like they could dynamically change prices based on user data pretty easily.

greedy_buffer 8y ago
If they were personalised it would be hard for sites like camelcamelcamel.com to exist, right? I would speculate that they don't personalise. Offering price discrimination as a service to third party sellers sounds like a minefield too.
- fishbone 8y ago
  Now that I think about it, price manipulation is probably illegal in most countries.
- gnopgnip 8y ago
  The price you see in the buy box is not always the lowest price. Anyone can click through and view all the sellers for an item. Sites like that track all the items for sale.
slouch 8y ago
> My question is, how dynamic are Amazon’s prices? Camelcamelcamel charts the price history of any item on Amazon https://camelcamelcamel.com/ https://camelcamelcamel.com/
Kagerjay 8y ago
Pretty sure users all see the same price, because otherwise reddit would be up in flames on things like r/mechkeyboarddeals, r/buildapc, r/ultralight, etc. Camelcamelcamel (price history checker) scrapes or pulls data from an external API, its going to be the same for all users
- specialist 8y ago
  I also use camelcamelcamel to sanity check my recurring purchases. For example, the range for my preferred elderberry syrup is from $20 to $45. https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Dünner-Sambu-Elderberry-Elderflower-17-Ounces/product/B001LCJMBE https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Dünner-Sambu-Elderberry-Elder... I waited the price to drop back down and then restocked. YMMV
  - Raphmedia 8y ago
    Out of curiosity, what use do you make of elderberry syrup?
    - specialist 8y ago
      Doctor's orders. I'm immune compromised. Dr says it's as effective as tamiflu. From my reading, elderberry doesn't prevent infections, but it does minimize the symptoms, which matches my experience.
      - melq 8y ago
        https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder >Although some preliminary research indicates that elderberry may relieve flu symptoms, the evidence is not strong enough to support its use for this purpose. You may want to find a new doctor.
        Raphmedia 8y ago
        That's true for almost all herbs. There are few studies because you cannot stick a copyright on herbs so there's no almost incentives for big companies to push for such researches. There seem to be some conclusive studies on elderberry helping for influenza. Ex: "In conclusion, the proprietary elderberry extract used here is effective in controlling influenza symptoms and is complementary to current anti‐viral agents. The safety and ease of administration warrant further investigation of its clinical efficacy in children, elderly and other high‐risk patients of the proprietary elderberry extracts." - http://www.omicron-pharma.com/pdfs/ElderberryClinicalOJPK_Published.pdf http://www.omicron-pharma.com/pdfs/ElderberryClinicalOJPK_Pu...
chooseaname 8y ago
I heard once that Mac users see slightly higher prices, but I've never been able to personally confirm that.
- astura 8y ago
  I thought that was for airplane tickets?
  - chooseaname 8y ago
    I've never heard it about airplane tickets. However, I will definitely look for that the next time I need to travel.
  - burlesona 8y ago
    Ugh. Do you have any source / evidence for that?
    - jfim 8y ago
      Orbitz did it a couple of years ago, showing more expensive hotels to Mac users for example. http://business.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-prices-to-mac-users/ http://business.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-pric...
    - kkarakk 8y ago
      it's easily verifiable, spoof your h/w,s/w and connection and visit a webpage you just viewed. the prices will be different. there are even use cases of buying return tickets from the destination country being cheaper than buying it from where you are. it's such common knowledge that even popular youtubers are making videos about it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utsnt6GFrKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utsnt6GFrKo (linus tech tips-6 minute watch) VPNs are quickly becoming compulsory tools to save mucho dinero
PKop 8y ago
No, prices (aside from "Amazon Business" pricing which was a large internal project to achieve what you're describing but only for differentiation between business and personal purchases) are all the same for every user. I believe most of the rationale was not wanting upset customers annoyed with getting different prices than others first and foremost, but also technically pricing system is already extremely complex and dynamic per user would add an order of magnitude to scaling challenges and viewed as not worth it.. Business pricing itself required many changes to internal system. Source: worked in Amazon Business / B2B
- hef19898 8y ago
  I heard that prices arw different for the webpage and the app in some cases. And even for Android or Apple users. Any truth to that or is it just office talk? Seriously wondering...
  - binarysolo 8y ago
    Amazon vendor here: pricing is not discrimated across platforms, BUT most vendors of a certain scale use repricing tools that dynamically change prices over time depending on inventory availability etc. (Think Uber "surge pricing" for products.)
    - hef19898 8y ago
      Thanks for the feed-back! Never had any insight into pricing, so I again learned something!
tjr 8y ago
I'm not sure how it happened, but at one point I had two of the same product in my cart -- not Quantity of 2, but it was listed two times. Both of the same Amazon product ID. And each at different prices. And, over time, as they sat in my cart, their prices changed, differently.
balt_s 8y ago
You could try the browser addon "Keepa" which show some historical price data -- very useful.
awaywopassd 8y ago
You were likely buying from a 3rd party seller. I know of some people who do this. Basically, list tons of items on Amazon from local speciality stores, Costco, etc. They markup prices, of course. Then once a day, on their way back home, they pickup stuff that was bought, pack it at night, and then ship it in the morning. You are basically paying for someone else to shop. I was introduced to this side-hustle by my friend and did this for a few months, but it was too much of hassle for very little return. Very hard to scale.
- vel0city 8y ago
  Even better are the drop shippers, who just scrape retailers online and create marked up listings on Amazon. When a user orders from their Amazon shop, they just place the order immediately on the boutique shop with the buyer's delivery information. Get a lot of these scripts running, and you can make a good bit of money.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    At least, that's what the paid online "run your own dropship business" courses would have us believe...

greedy_buffer 8y ago

If they were personalised it would be hard for sites like camelcamelcamel.com to exist, right? I would speculate that they don't personalise. Offering price discrimination as a service to third party sellers sounds like a minefield too.

fishbone 8y ago
Now that I think about it, price manipulation is probably illegal in most countries.
gnopgnip 8y ago
The price you see in the buy box is not always the lowest price. Anyone can click through and view all the sellers for an item. Sites like that track all the items for sale.

slouch 8y ago

> My question is, how dynamic are Amazon’s prices? Camelcamelcamel charts the price history of any item on Amazon https://camelcamelcamel.com/ https://camelcamelcamel.com/

Kagerjay 8y ago

Pretty sure users all see the same price, because otherwise reddit would be up in flames on things like r/mechkeyboarddeals, r/buildapc, r/ultralight, etc. Camelcamelcamel (price history checker) scrapes or pulls data from an external API, its going to be the same for all users

specialist 8y ago
I also use camelcamelcamel to sanity check my recurring purchases. For example, the range for my preferred elderberry syrup is from $20 to $45. https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Dünner-Sambu-Elderberry-Elderflower-17-Ounces/product/B001LCJMBE https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Dünner-Sambu-Elderberry-Elder... I waited the price to drop back down and then restocked. YMMV
- Raphmedia 8y ago
  Out of curiosity, what use do you make of elderberry syrup?
  - specialist 8y ago
    Doctor's orders. I'm immune compromised. Dr says it's as effective as tamiflu. From my reading, elderberry doesn't prevent infections, but it does minimize the symptoms, which matches my experience.
    - melq 8y ago
      https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder >Although some preliminary research indicates that elderberry may relieve flu symptoms, the evidence is not strong enough to support its use for this purpose. You may want to find a new doctor.
      - Raphmedia 8y ago
        That's true for almost all herbs. There are few studies because you cannot stick a copyright on herbs so there's no almost incentives for big companies to push for such researches. There seem to be some conclusive studies on elderberry helping for influenza. Ex: "In conclusion, the proprietary elderberry extract used here is effective in controlling influenza symptoms and is complementary to current anti‐viral agents. The safety and ease of administration warrant further investigation of its clinical efficacy in children, elderly and other high‐risk patients of the proprietary elderberry extracts." - http://www.omicron-pharma.com/pdfs/ElderberryClinicalOJPK_Published.pdf http://www.omicron-pharma.com/pdfs/ElderberryClinicalOJPK_Pu...

chooseaname 8y ago

I heard once that Mac users see slightly higher prices, but I've never been able to personally confirm that.

astura 8y ago
I thought that was for airplane tickets?
- chooseaname 8y ago
  I've never heard it about airplane tickets. However, I will definitely look for that the next time I need to travel.
- burlesona 8y ago
  Ugh. Do you have any source / evidence for that?
  - jfim 8y ago
    Orbitz did it a couple of years ago, showing more expensive hotels to Mac users for example. http://business.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-prices-to-mac-users/ http://business.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-pric...
  - kkarakk 8y ago
    it's easily verifiable, spoof your h/w,s/w and connection and visit a webpage you just viewed. the prices will be different. there are even use cases of buying return tickets from the destination country being cheaper than buying it from where you are. it's such common knowledge that even popular youtubers are making videos about it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utsnt6GFrKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utsnt6GFrKo (linus tech tips-6 minute watch) VPNs are quickly becoming compulsory tools to save mucho dinero

PKop 8y ago

No, prices (aside from "Amazon Business" pricing which was a large internal project to achieve what you're describing but only for differentiation between business and personal purchases) are all the same for every user. I believe most of the rationale was not wanting upset customers annoyed with getting different prices than others first and foremost, but also technically pricing system is already extremely complex and dynamic per user would add an order of magnitude to scaling challenges and viewed as not worth it.. Business pricing itself required many changes to internal system. Source: worked in Amazon Business / B2B

hef19898 8y ago
I heard that prices arw different for the webpage and the app in some cases. And even for Android or Apple users. Any truth to that or is it just office talk? Seriously wondering...
- binarysolo 8y ago
  Amazon vendor here: pricing is not discrimated across platforms, BUT most vendors of a certain scale use repricing tools that dynamically change prices over time depending on inventory availability etc. (Think Uber "surge pricing" for products.)
  - hef19898 8y ago
    Thanks for the feed-back! Never had any insight into pricing, so I again learned something!

tjr 8y ago

I'm not sure how it happened, but at one point I had two of the same product in my cart -- not Quantity of 2, but it was listed two times. Both of the same Amazon product ID. And each at different prices. And, over time, as they sat in my cart, their prices changed, differently.

balt_s 8y ago

You could try the browser addon "Keepa" which show some historical price data -- very useful.

awaywopassd 8y ago

You were likely buying from a 3rd party seller. I know of some people who do this. Basically, list tons of items on Amazon from local speciality stores, Costco, etc. They markup prices, of course. Then once a day, on their way back home, they pickup stuff that was bought, pack it at night, and then ship it in the morning. You are basically paying for someone else to shop. I was introduced to this side-hustle by my friend and did this for a few months, but it was too much of hassle for very little return. Very hard to scale.

vel0city 8y ago
Even better are the drop shippers, who just scrape retailers online and create marked up listings on Amazon. When a user orders from their Amazon shop, they just place the order immediately on the boutique shop with the buyer's delivery information. Get a lot of these scripts running, and you can make a good bit of money.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  At least, that's what the paid online "run your own dropship business" courses would have us believe...